Time to Pull The Plug: Madea's Big Happy Family Movie Trailer Official (HD)

"I've been sick a long time."

So says Mama Shirley (played in yeoman fashion Tyler Perry staple Loretta Devine), but it may as well have come form the writer-director-star in reference to this franchise. From its beginnings in obscure theatre, Perry's malapropping, gun-toting (she relies on her hands this time around), foul-mouth drag creation made him a household name and oodles of money - to the point where his Tyler Perry Studios receives top billing alongside releasing studio Lionsgate.

But Madea and her "hell-er!!" schtick really has as much miles on it as the beat-up Cadillac that she continues to torture. Like a soap opera that you can skip five episodes and come back spot on with the storyline, or an over-formatted radio station where you can guess the songs in a particular order on nay given day, Madea's "Family" is entirely predictable. Even the few genuinely funny highlights - such as the first time inside Madea's house with Uncle Joe (Perry again, doing an Eddie Murphy), and the "weedheaded" antics of Aunt Bam, cannot rescue the thinking viewer from the tedium of the sundry family dramas, with the revelations coming thick and fast in the film's final third.

Of course, die-hard Madea followers will lap up this latest offering and will revel in the little distractions, like the "By-reeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnn!! of the nagging "baby-mama" and the recurrent views of trash talk show host Maury Povich.

The rest of us will simply groan in torture as Madea's death throes continue.